Ginko's Apprentic
by Skysong441
Summary: Ginko seems to have attracked a young orphan as a wannabe apprentice will he take the child on or cast her into the cruel world? Nov.21 Update! Chapter two added 3 in the works
1. Teach me Sensei!

Ginko's Apprentice

"Teach me Sensei!"

Midoriko ran down the road after the enigmatic mushi master Ginko her dirty blonde hair trailing behind her. She had been trailing him for weeks now and was trying to get him to teach her. "Ginko Sensei!" she called after him trying to catch up to him.

Ginko turned around and looked at Midoriko. "Look kid, stop following me and go back to your village." He then went right on walking. Midoriko raced up next to him and smiled "You can't get rid of me that easy Ginko sensei, I Midoriko wan to be a mushi master like you Ginko sensei" she said grinning.

"Look, Midoriko, I don't want an apprentice let alone a little scamp of a village girl."

"Ginko-san, please, I want to learn about mushi and how to treat people who are being harmed by mushi."

Ginko remembered the girls village, was almost completely destroyed by a rare type of mushi. Midoriko had been the only survivor whom after a few days had taken to following him begging to be trained as a mushi master, relentlessly.

"Midoriko I know you lost a lot to the mushi, but I can't teach you if you can't see them."

Midoriko smiled "But I can see them Ginko-san, I can even close my second eye lid!"

Ginko stopped and looked the girl in the eye, his green one meeting her sky blue ones. He studied the girl a moment.

"Alright," he said ", let's sit down here a moment."

Ginko sat on the ground and Midoriko did the same. Ginko closed his eyes and his second eye lid and saw the river. Midoriko understood what he was doing and followed suit. When she saw the river she spotted Ginko and waved to him. They both opened their eyes and Ginko looked at the girl again, she was grinning.

"Alright so I still don't want a student."

Ginko got up and continued walking. Midoriko followed suit they walk for quite awhile in silence, well almost silence Midoriko was smiling and humming because Ginko had stopped telling her to turn back.

The sun began to set and Ginko began to make camp, with Midoriko helping out quite a bit. He decided to cave.

"Midoriko, I've decided to teach you after all, as long as you promise to help out with anything and everything I ask you to do and stay out of the way when asked, understand."

Midoriko lit up "Yes Sensei!" she chimed.


	2. Lesson One

Ginko's Apprentice

"Lesson One…"

They spent the day on the trail seeing many common and harmless mushi on the way. Ginko pointed most of them out and stated what it was called. When they made camp that night Ginko pulled out some scrolls.

"Midoriko, lesson one, names and effects of mushi."

"Yes sensei" Midoriko said taking the scrolls and opening them and beginning to read about each type of mushi, the condition they liked, what they could cause in a human being and so forth.

Ginko watched the girl read and could almost watch her absorbing the knowledge right off the pages. Ginko smiled a bit amused by the girl.

It was starting to get a little too dark to read in Ginko's opinion. He looked at how many scrolls Midoriko had read stunned that she was almost done with the last one.

"Okay Midoriko, that's enough for tonight, you'll get minago mushi at this rate." Ginko laughed a bit as Midoriko finished the scroll.

"I'm done any way Ginko-san." She handed him back all the scrolls and he handed her some dinner.

"Here, eat I can't have my new apprentice dying of hunger on me"

Midoriko smiled and ate her meal happily. Ginko was amazed that the girl could be so happy and carefree after everything that happened to her. He was also stunned by her interest in mushi. She was a little gem of a girl, and a quick learner to boot.

"Hey, Midoriko, why did you want to start studying mushi in the first place?"

"Oh, because I could always see them at first I thought they were just in my imagination from stories my grandmother told me. Once they started killing off my village I wanted to know why and how I could help, or at least stop it from happening to another town. Hopefully save another girl like me from everything I lost."

Ginko looked at her absolutely stunned at how simple an answer it really was. This little orphan girl who had gone through so much was still so sweet, innocent and pure.

"Well that's very simple and very noble." He smoked some of his mushi tobacco and stared off towards the stars.

"Get some sleep now Midoriko, hopefully tomorrow we'll hit another town and I can teach you how to recognize mushi related illness."


	3. Of Rain and Akodo

Ginko's Apretince

Of Rain and Akodo

It had been a few days since Ginko had begun teching Midoriko and they really hadn't come across much. The opressive heat made it hard to concentrate or move very quickly and it hadn't rained for days. Midoriko was growing tired and thirsty from the long trek, "How much longer til the next village Sensei?" She asked a slight frown crossing her usually happy features. Ginko looked down at her and frowned "Soon I hope very soon." He felt terrible knowing she was unhappy.

They continued walking in silence for a little longer before Midoriko perked up "It's going to rain soon Sensei!" she exclaimed runing ahead. "See look," she pointed "Akodo that way!"

Ginko looked up to see the reverse rainbow in the next valley and the approaching storm clouds. "Midoriko wait up!" he shouted after her as she started getting farther and farther ahead. "Wait Midoriko!" he shouted again before it started raining and then she stopped looking up at the sky and smiling, spinning around. Ginko got up to her and grabbed her pulling her close "Don't go running off like that," he said sternly "God only knows what these woods conceal what if there were bandits up here? What would you have done?" Ginko sighed and pulled her under a tree before they got any more soaked

"I'm sorry Sensei," she said quietly looking up at him her blue eyes sincere. Ginko sighed and ran a hand through her sandy colored hair and looked at her "Midoriko you have to be careful there are a lot of dangerous things in the woods and I don't want to see anything happen to you." Midoriko nodded in understading before hugging Ginko tightly and giving him a light kiss on the cheek "I'll be more careful then Ginko-Sama." He smiled realizing this one little girl was making him weak but he didn't care very much she needed some one to look out for her and it might as well be him.

"Hopefully we can find a village soon we're starting to run low on food," Ginko said pulling out one of the last rice balls and handing it to Midoriko.


End file.
